I'm just an average person who happens to run a little. I've done a few 5k's, which is amazing in itself. You followed my half-marathon training with me, now I'm training for my first full marathon! Come with me on this journey.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Busy Week

The title says it all... It's been a busy week, but I've managed to get all my workouts in. Here's the rundown:

Tuesday: went to the Y and got measured for body fat %, BMI and waist-to-hip ratio. After this, I felt good about myself. I was in the normal/recommended range for all of them. Yes! So then I ran 1.5 miles on the indoor track and 1.5 miles on the treadmill for the full 3 mile training.

Wednesday: I was traveling for work but luckily it was a cross-training day. My plan was to get to Berkeley (Illinois, near Chicago), go get dinner with my co-workers, then ride bike for 30 minutes in the fitness center. Instead, I did 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. I thought I would get a cramp from eating so much before but I did not. In fact, the training called for 25 minutes and I went for 30.

Thursday: Got up at 5:00 Chicago time and ran 3 miles on the treadmill in the fitness center. It was 6:00 our time, so even though I got up "early" there, I slept in an hour and a half later than usual and still got my training in. For some reason, it was easy to do the three miles on the treadmill there. At the Y I have problems doing it for so long.Maybe it was the time of day or the show I was watching, but it was really easy to do.

Friday: rest day!

Saturday: I switched up today and tomorrow and did my long run today and will cross-train tomorrow. I did 4.5 miles today, which is the longest I've ever run. I knew I'd have a mental block with this so I told myself I was two runs of 2.25 miles each. Believe it or not, it worked. I was doing an out and back run again so I knew that once I hit the 2.25 mile mark, I'd turn around and start my "second" run back home.

This time I ran down the country roads to a new bridge being built. Half of it is open, so I ran to that, and just to the bottom of the other side was 2.25 miles. At the bottom, I turned back around and climbed back up to the top. Unfortunately the wind was not my friend here. The long stretch on that road, the wind was at my face on the way home. Luckily when I turned back onto our street the wind was at my back and the last half mile was one of my fastest splits.

Overall it was a good run. I wanted to give up, but I didn't. Like I said, it was all mental. I had to push myself through the times I wanted to stop. I did it and was proud of myself. Looking forward to the 5 mile milestone next week!